Who would have thought that the “Feel Good Movie of the Year” would have, at it’s core, a story about an Aquarium Janitor, a Vagabond and…an Octopus. But that is exactly what you get with the straight-to-Netflix film REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES Written and Directed by Olivia Newman based on the popular debut novel of the same name written by Shelby Van Pelt. Set in the Pacific Northwest, REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES tells the tale of loss, love and a life that has lost it’s ze

What are the elements that make a film watchable? Plot Characters/Performances Direction/Tone Cinematography Script/Dialogue Let’s see how the straight to Netflix thriller APEX fares in these categories. PLOT: A mano-a-mano story of a person exorcising demons of their past when they are caught in a cat-and-mouse game with a psycho-killer. Only one of them can come out of this alive. Verdict: Fair enough. A bit derivative, but I’ll go with it CHARACTERS/PERFORMANCES: Char

Halfway through my viewing of the Coen Bros. 1991 weird dark comedy BARTON FINK my thoughts drifted to wondering if this film was just going to be weird or was there going to be a point/plot to this film. And then the 2nd half of the film kicked in and I got my answer…in spades. A dark satire of the Hollywood Studio system of the 1940’s, BARTON FINK tells the tale of a NYC Theater writer, Barton Fink (John Turturro) who is hired by a “Big Hollywood Studio” to write a “B” flic

When I saw that there was a “gritty Crime Thriller” starring Chris Hemsworth, Halle Berry and Mark Ruffalo coming to theaters in January, I was intrigued and looked forward to checking it out. Next thing I know, it was out of theaters and wouldn’t show up on streaming until March. I have now watched that film and understand why it didn’t last long. Written and Directed by Bart Layton (the underrated AMERICAN ANIMALS), CRIME 101 is a “HEAT wannabe” in that it shows a thief, w